Crawling, Pulling Up, Bath Time, and a Bad Back

Well I've finally got Jordon's laptop, so I can post a few pictures with this blog. Ethan is really cruising these days. He's figured out the hands and knees crawling and yesterday he started pulling himself up to standing on things. I have been mostly couch ridden all weekend because I somehow tweeked or threw my back out on friday and haven't been able to do much without pain. So I was laying on the couch on saturday reading a book while Ethan was being nice to mommy and playing on his own. I think he really wanted my book, so he crawled over to the couch, grabbed on to the couch cover and just pull himself up right next to me. It was so fun to see. He tried this on the tv stand and smacked his head pretty good. He was trying to get to the tv screen, but was only able to stick his fingers in the VCR slot. OH goody... the real fun begins! He's really going to be getting into things now. I thought he was getting into everything before, now it's only going to get worse. But it really is so fun to watch. He loves to play with our shoes by the door, so we both have to be careful when we come home that we don't smack him with the door when we open it.

Grammy and Grampa Felt came last week for a few days to visit Ethan. They seemed to enjoy him and we sure enjoyed having them here. Jordon and I were able to go see a movie one afternoon and I was able to go to the temple one morning. It was so nice to have someone watch him so we could get out.

We have early morning church on sundays and so by Relief Society at 11:30, he's usually tired and cranky. But today he was such a cute little guy. He just sat on my lap sucking on a toy and watching one of his little friends (who was also very tired and cranky) throw himself on the floor crying... poor mom! Then I started to notice his head bob and he fell asleep sitting up on me, which he rarely does!

I love to take Ethan grocery shopping with me now, he's big enough to sit up in the grocery cart and he just loves to look at everything in the store. There is always plenty of things to keep him entertained. People love to look at him too, I always get sweet little comments about how cute he is and how beautiful his eyes are. He's always very willing to give them a smile too. I had an older woman ask me if he was always so content. I laughed and said "no, not always" but then explained to her that he loves the store because he has so much to look at, so he's usually quite happy here. But really when I thought about it, he really is quite the happy little guy and such a joy to have around. Of course he can get cranky when he's tired and hungry, but hey, who doesn't!

Ethan gets soooooooo excited when Daddy comes home from school. Jordon will walk in the door and Ethan will look up, smile and squeel, then scramble over his toys and start hauling himself over to where Jordon is. It's the cutest thing to watch and Jordon loves it. He used to always ask me "do you think Ethan loves me?" and I'd tell him all the time that he's crazy and yes he loves him! Well, it's quite easy to see that these days. Ethan knows that when daddy is home, he'll play with him, and he loves to play with Daddy! I now understand when people have told me that we mom's have to do all the worrying and the serious stuff like making sure they are eating right, brushing their teeth, doing their homework, etc. But dad's get to be the ones who have fun and play with them. Of course, I have fun with Ethan too. Jordon takes care of Ethan just great while I'm gone at school in the evenings. He loves to give him baths and create a wave pool for Ethan and squirt him with his little toy squirters. Jordon really turns into a little boy himself when he's playing with Ethan.

I'm itching to get out of the house more and pray that spring will get here soon! I miss going for stroller rides with Ethan and getting some good ol' fresh air and exercise. The snow is starting to melt, but there's still plenty of it around and usually it melts, but then more snow dumps on top of it eventually. My mom mentioned that she forgot how much snow we get here, the piles of snow from the plows are usually at least 10 feet high. Most of the time the snow piles around our apartment are usually at the second story level. The piles in the grocery store parking lots are about 20 feet high. I guess since I've lived here for 4 years, I'm pretty used to the winters and how much snow we get. It's really no big deal to me these days, I'm just mostly sick of it and want the nice spring weather to come.

Jordon will be doing an internship this year. We were hoping to get one for the Fall, but it looks more and more like we may end up leaving and doing the internship over the summer. We'll be applying for positions all over the place very shortly and then we'll see what happens. I'm one who needs to know what's happening in my life, so it's been a very hard thing for me to let go of the fact that we don't know where we'll be in a few months from now and how we'll pay for everything, but we'll do it and figure it all out eventually. I just need to relax and let things happen how they should.